RANI NAIR

Foto Imre Zsibrik

Foto Imre Zsibrik

Foto Imre Zsibrik

I work as a dancer and choreographer with a special interest in decolonial practices and postcolonial aesthetics. 

My choreographies have been programmed at the Centre National de la Dance Paris, ImpulsTanz Vienna, Spielart festival Munich, Ignite! Festival of contemporary dance Delhi, Singapore International Festival of Arts, Gothenburg Dance- and Theatre festival and at the Swedish biennial for performing arts. My work is also represented at the Performing arts museum, Dance museum in Stockholm and in the book Oxford Dictionary of Dance and Re-enactment. 

Memory and archive is a recurring thematic in my work, firstly through a reconstruction of my inheritance of Kurt Jooss last choreography, Dixit Dominus, created for the Swedish based Indian dancer Lilavati, and later on as a second order performance, a performance about the performance, Future Memory. I also participated in the curation of Ong Keng Sen in the Archive box an exchange between Japanese dance makers and artists of the Indian contemporary dance scene. This summer I’m performing the duo An evening with Astad in Munich in a programmation discussing “post-migrant dance”. The work stages Astad Deboo 70 years old, a pioneer of Indian contemporary dance and takes a closer look at his early avantgard solos from 1970-80s. 

I’ve collaborated in various settings and networks, such as the self organised Sweet and Tender collaborations and was a founding member of Rörelsen – koreografer i Skåne Together with Jassem Hindi (France) and Mia Habib (Norway), I performed as the trio WE Insist in varied settings from apartments in Morocco, galleries in Damascus and abandoned houses in Vardö, northern Norway. I’m currently a member of the art group Ful, a collective of artists from different fields working with queer feminist theories and postcolonial aesthetics. Ful art magazine was awarded best cultural journal 2010. At the election 2014 we created the anti-nationalistic cabaret Europa Europa, with the electronica duo The Knife. We toured Sweden 2014, Europe 2015 and collaborated with local artists in Mexico and North America 2016. During the election last autumn we created Mother’s Manifest which toured in a blow up tent to various places in Sweden. 

As a dancer I’ve worked with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance co, Jayachandran Palazhy, Julie Nioche and made projects and workshops in Madagascar, India, Mongolia, Syria, Turkey, South Africa. Influenced by the South Asian Underground club scene, I created my first experimental solos at The Place Theatre London to music composed by the late State of Bengal.

Grants & Awards

• Konstnärsnämnden, Långtidsstipendium 2017– 2026
• Stenkrossen Lunds kommun maxi stöd 2019 – 2021
• Artist in residence, Världskulturmuseet Göteborg 2008
• Residency at UFER Studios Berlin, through the International Dance programme, the Arts Grants committee Berlin 2017
• SITE Stockholm, Stipendiat 2014
• House of Dance Stockholm, Residencies 2004 and 2014
• Sparbanksstiftelsen Skåne stipendiat 2004
• Lund kommuns kulturstipendium 1994
• Crafoordska Stiftelsen, various supports in connection with education in London during the 90s
• Various supports and grants from The Swedish Arts council, The Arts Grants committee, Region Skåne, Lund municipality, Carina Ari stiftelsen
• London Studio Centre 94 – 96
•  Scholarship Student, awarded Best development at the exam

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Positions of trust

• Riksteaterns dansavdelning Stockholm, artistic advisory board 2015 – 2017
• W.I.S.P, Women In Swedish Performing Art, member of the board 2010 – 2012
• Konstnärsnämndens Internationella dansprogram, member or the advisory board 2009 – 2011
• Riksförbundet för folkmusik och dans, Ta plats! mentor, 2010 & 2011
• Rörelsen - koreografer i Skåne Malmö, founding member, member of the board 2004 – 2011

Papers on my work

• Elswit, Kate “Letters to Lila and Dramaturg's Notes on Future Memory: Inheriting Dance’s Alternative Histories” (with Rani Nair). In The Handbook of Dance and Reenactment (2017), ed. Mark Franko. New York: Oxford University Press, 177-214.  
• Elswit, Kate “Inheriting Dance’s Alternative Histories”. Dance Research Journal, 46.1 (2014), 3-22. 
• Chatterjee, Sandra (2013). “Entangled Histories and Kinesthetic Connections: Memory, Heritage and Performance in Rani Nair’s Future Memory". In Nordic Forum for Dance Research/Society of Dance History Scholars, Conference Proceedings. Norwegian University Of Science And Technology (NTNU) Trondheim, Norway 2013: Published By The Society Of Dance History Scholars: 89-97. 
• Hammergren, Lena. 2009. “The Power of Classification.” In Worlding Dance, edited by Foster, Susan Leigh, 14–31. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2019/330/2.2.1. 
• Cogne, Ingrid and Hedemyr, Marika; ed The Mob Without Flash (2016).

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Trailers of previous performances and collaborations